I am a mom of two kids. DD is 4 years old and DS just turned 2. DS has been diagnosed with apraxia and is currently receiving ST once a week in our home through the state's EI program. We have had 4 therapy sessions and I am extremely pleased with his response so far. Although he has to be prompted most of the time, he has increased the frequency and number of words he says/attempts to say. He has increased his use of signs and seems more confident and assertive. He has begun to use "dada" "hi" "bye (or die most of the time)" and "no" with good spontaneity and consistency. He will try to repeat almost anything you ask him to try to say and his accuracy with a few of his consonant sounds is getting much better. We are working on p, b, m, and h mainly. He seems to have his d's mastered which is why "dada" refers both to me and my husband and also why he tells people to "die" when he is trying to tell them "bye." I know he's had an early explosion so I will be cautiously optimistic that he will continue to improve as he has. Look forward to hearing more of your stories.

Hi, I'm Mom to Bryce, my 22-mo old son. I have the EI evaluation scheduled for next Thursday and I'm very very anxious to see what they have to say. He has about 20 words, most of which are fairly understandable. No 2-word sentences. One thing they've asked me 2x over the phone is whether he tries to imitate what we're saying (which is a definite no) and whether he follows directions (which he does, yeah!).

I spent years in ST growing up (all the way through 5th grade!) and want to get a head start on whatever Bryce's troubles are, if any, in the hopes of him not having to go through that embarrassment all through grade school!

My name is Shannon. I am the mommy to 2 beautiful boys. Brandon is 5 and Cameron is 25 mo.Cameron was just diagnosed with verbal and oral apraxia and will begin speech therapy this week. he will be recieving services twice a week for 45 min. through Early Intervention. I am a teacher and thankful this was caught early but am nervous about what the future holds for him.

I am borrowing signing time DVD's and are hoping this will give him means to communicate(other than screaming and pointing) until he can find his words.

Ok I am new here. I have a 5 yr old DS and a 2 1/2yr old DS my youngest just isn't the talker his brother was at his age I mean he says mommy , hello bye drink down lil things but now real sentences. and he will not call his dad daddy he calls him bubba... I don't know if there is a real problem or he just doesn't want to talk to us

Hi I'm Tasha. I live in the Bahamas and I have two sons, 3 1/4 and 2 3/4 years old. My three year old has a moderate speech delay. He's very bright and his receptive knowledge is right on the money. He follows two and three part instructions just fine, but he still has trouble stringing sentences together. He's got lots of words, and he mimicks just fine, but he hasn't got the hang of making sentences with more than two or three words. Most of his sentences are phrases that he mimicks. Mind you, he uses them in appropriate situations, and not randomly, but he seems to not understand that they are individual words that can be used in a variety of combinations. Speech therapy here is very expensive and is not covered by my our insurer. We're making the sacrifice nonetheless because he's still not potty trained either and we feel it's all connected. Further, he will only have another year and a half in preschool/pre-k and then he'll be in first grade at age 5, so we want to make sure he's ready for it. If he isn't able to express himself well enough, I'm certainly not going to send him. His speech has improved significantly since beginning preschool in May of this year, so I'm happy about that. He asks questions and can be understood most of the time, but still I know that he's not where his peers are at when it comes to creating conversation using sentences. The more words he tries to string together, the more garbled his speech gets and the harder he is to understand. It all runs together and slurs. I wonder if I'm not overreacting sometimes, even though he has been evaluated by a speech therapist and his delay has been confirmed. I often wonder if it isn't something that will "work itself out". However, I don't want to take chances with his development if there is something I can do to help him. Glad to "meet" all of you and thanks in advance for the support!

My name is Erika and I am the proud momy of Juan Pablo. He is 34 months and he is deaf. He was diagnosticated with profound bilateral deafness when he was 12 months. Last 2 years were very, very intensive for muy mom and I as we try to learn everything about this disability. Thanks God we are doing just great now. Juan Pablo has a coclear implant and is learning to hear, understand the meaning of things and to speak. He attends a 5 session/week auditory verbal therapy and in last august he started nursery grade in a regular kindergarden.

This is my first time joining groups and after all I have read here I feel energized. Thks for sharing and hope our toddlers continue improving!

I have a 2 1/2 year old girl. We have been working with early infant toddler program since she was 16 months old because she wasn't walking or talking at that time. She started walking the day before they came out and has very slowly developed a vocabulary. One day I feel like my child is perfectly normal and the next I see her with other children her age and she isn't doing what they may be doing, and then the professionals tell me she is behind and needs more evaluating. I do support the early infant and toddler program in the state, but man I don't think they do a very good job with my child. The only staff member that works well with kids is the PT which we don't need anymore. I'm not fond of the OT, ST, or early childhood educator. I know other parents that are frustated with the system as well, but what do you do?

We have had her vision, hearing, and now she's also been checked for seizures. Everything has been normal. She is extremely shy in social situations, but very energetic at home. She has alot of words, uses a couple 2 word together, and occasionally 3. Very hard to understand most of her words. She didn't call me "mommy" till about a month ago, she called me "abby" forever, which isn't my name. She has been going to the same daycare for 7 months and they have only heard about 5 words. She now goes to preschool. She looks scared to death to go to both places. All the other kids at both places look very happy, teachers are very nice. I have watched her through the viewing window and she is frozen whenever she's in these places. It makes me cry at times to see her so scared. I try to pump her up and get excited about going to preschool and daycare. She is an extremely happy child at home, but a whole new kid in social situations.

I just want to know if she will be considered "normal" one day, or always a little bit of an outcast. I am ok with whatever because I love her to pieces. I just wish I knew what to do, it seems like the more help I get the worst I feel about her outcome because they keep coming up with things that "maybe" wrong, when on the average day she seems perfectly fine minus a few delays.

My 26 month old just got eval'd by Early Intervention and has a delay, but I am not sure of the name...the lady says his brain is not able to connect the message in his brain to his mouth or something like that? He can't say any words but is able to make his needs known. He does make vowel sounds.She sounds hopeful as he is otherwise normal with nonverbal and all other areas assessed. We probably won't be able to get a Speech Therapist until after the holidays, what a bummer.

My 1st son died at age 2 from unknown causes and also had a speech delay. They speculate he had a seizure or heart arrhythmia. I have always wondered if he had some sort of unknown or undiagnosed neurolologic disorder.

There are lots of cases in my extended family where children have been slow to talk, there must be a genetic component.

My YDD is 3y8m and has been in therapy since she was 22m. She has seen just about every doctor out there from Neurology to Developmental peds trying to figure out why. She sees a private speech therapist once or twice a week and is in a Developmental preschool twice a week. DNA came back normal as did her MRI.

My son is 23m. He has been in ST since 18m. They are checking his DNA right now but it will probably come back normal. He has only seen the ENT and the Developmental Ped. since there is already a family history they don't want to do unneeded tests on him.

Both are great at everything but speech so we are just trying to figure out why.